No Filter: Ancient Whales Were Wolves of the Sea

The biggest animals on the planet right now are baleen whales, which upped their size thanks to efficient filter-feeding. How they got that specialized system has long been a mystery, but a new study nixes some theories about it evolving out of ancient whales’ dentition. Those earlier animals, say researchers, were bitey predators with sharp teeth made for tearing things up.

Let’s face it, whales are kind of whacky. Millions of years after the early tetrapod transition from the sea to l